CBI on Friday arrested the former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar in alleged irregularities in a loan of worth ₹ 3,000-crore provided to Video on Group when she was the head of the bank.
In 2018, Chanda Kochhar had stepped down as the CEO and managing director of the ICICI Bank because of the allegations that she favoured Videocon Group, a multinational company.
An year after the incident, ICICI in its statement said that it would call Ms Kochhar’s exit as “termination for cause” for alleged violations of the bank’s internal policies and code of conduct.
The CBI has accused the former ICICI CEO for cheating and criminal conspiracy in connection with a loan amounting to ₹ 3,250 crore to Videocon Group in 2012, the company had even became a non-performing asset for the private sector bank.
As per a source, it was known that Ms Kochhar’s husband and her family took benefits from the deal.
In the charges filed in the case, the former chairperson of the Videocon Group Venugopal Shoot had allegedly invested crores of rupees in months after it received the loan in NuPower Renewables, which Mr Kochhar funded.
Ms Kochhar was part of a committee that approved the loan, said the CBI. The investigating agency further alleged that she abused her official post and “got illegal gratification/ undue benefit through her husband from Dhoot sanctioning ₹ 300 crore to Videocon”.
The loan to Videocon Group from ICICI bank was part of a loan worth ₹ 40,000 crore which the company received from a consortium of 20 banks led by the State Bank of India.
However, Ms Kochhar who worked at India’s third lender for 3 decades at various ranks denied the allegations saying, “I reiterate that none of the credit decisions at the bank are unilateral … the organisation design and structure obviate the possibility of conflict of interest”.
